39 ms·

Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

426 points by phantom_oracle 6y ago

imbusy111 6y ago
I see little advantage vs. any other Android smartphone + Bluetooth keyboard of your choice.
- Sodman 6y ago
  Being built right into the phone is a huge advantage! Even if you manage to get a perfect bluetooth connection (which, on Android, is a much bigger ask than many realize), and ignore the fact that you now have another separate device to charge - there's no beating this form factor. Your options are to use a horrible oversized clamshell design (eg [0]) that turns your phone into a tablet, or don't physically attach to your phone at all and end up being a 2nd device / accessory to carry around with you / manage / lose. [0]https://www.amazon.com/BESTLIFE-Universal-Wireless-Bluetooth-Keyboard/dp/B07MCTW6BD/ https://www.amazon.com/BESTLIFE-Universal-Wireless-Bluetooth...
robert_foss 6y ago
Seems pretty cool. This SOC is bound to have pretty good upstream linux support to, since the Snapdragon 660 is in very good shape.
- floatboth 6y ago
  The 662 is much newer (what a weird numbering scheme…) so there's probably many differences to the 660..
  - robert_foss 6y ago
    It is likely based on an older silicon base design. Snapdragon 662 seems to have the internal Qcom id sm6115[1]. Being based on linux v4.19[2] also seems to point in this direction. Another hint is it shipping the same CPU core versions as the 660. It seems to be a 11nm part as opposed to the 660 which is a 14nm part. This all being said, it won't be plug & play with upstream linux today. But probably soon enough. This project likely is based on Qcom downstream kernels for the moment. [1] https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/qualcomm/snapdragon_600/662 https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/qualcomm/snapdragon_600/662 [2] https://github.com/moto-sm6115/kernel_motorola_bengalito https://github.com/moto-sm6115/kernel_motorola_bengalito
camillomiller 6y ago
I tell you: this is the year of Linux on Smartphones. jk
fsflover 6y ago
AFAIK it has proprietary drivers probably preventing future updates (like for other Android phones). I prefer Purism Librem 5 instead, which gives true freedom.
- enriquto 6y ago
  Yes, it's really absurd that a niche phone "that gives you control" shuts off most of its potential clients by offering them a phone based on non-free software that they cannot modify.
gue5t 6y ago
"LINEAGEOS, UBUNTU TOUCH or ANDROID" is a euphemism for "we did not do the important, hard work of upstreaming drivers". This phone might be perfectly nice, but it's a "Linux phone" in a marketing sense only; nobody has properly ported Linux to it, and you'll be stuck with an ancient kernel full of proprietary userspace blobs. I'd love to hear otherwise, but I've seen this pattern repeat a number of times (the Gemini PDA and successors, various "secure" phones, essentially all the Ubuntu Touch devices https://phone.docs.ubuntu.com/en/devices/devices https://phone.docs.ubuntu.com/en/devices/devices, etc.) and those who do put in the critical driver work are in-touch enough to know it's worth being explicit about upfront.
- robert_foss 6y ago
  You can't really blame a tiny manufacturer for not having all the drivers upstreamed. They probably don't have access to the relevant datasheets even if they had the money/time/developers to pursue full upstreaming. Upstreaming drivers is the vendors responsibility.
  - jrwr 6y ago
    even the rPi has a bunch of firmware that just is not open sourced, they used their own kernel for years because of that.
vasilakisfil 6y ago
I would like to see the keyboard layout but I can't find any photo.
- developer92 6y ago
  There's a photo on the front page...
  - vasilakisfil 6y ago
    thanks was from mobile and I couldn't see it. Now from desktop I can see it.
- Fnoord 6y ago
  See [1], source: FTA. This is the spiritual successor of the Nokia N900, and it isn't a very good keyboard (but a better layout than N900). Its pretty much a rebrand of the same device with the same name from 2019 without the 'X'. Difference is it has better OS support (thanks to XDA, I guess), different SOC (recent SD600 series instead of SD835), and a different colour (blue instead of grey). If you want a very good hardware keyboard use whatever BT or USB (such as HHKB) or try one of the Planet devices (Gemini/Cosmo/Astro). I own a Cosmo, the keyboard is superb. They all have the very same keyboard. Right now, I'd opt for an Astro instead of Cosmo. Also slider instead of candybar + horizontal flip, and a more recent SOC (D800), with a proven track record of keyboard. [1] https://www.fxtec.com/images/pro1x-landscape.jpg https://www.fxtec.com/images/pro1x-landscape.jpg
  - antattack 6y ago
    Astro Slide 5G Transformer seems like a really good phone, one that I actually might get once it's past the Indiegogo stage. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transformer#/updates/all https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transforme... EDIT: and it has a backlight keyboard!
    - Fnoord 6y ago
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
antattack 6y ago
The promo for Pro1X makes privacy claims but doesn't Ubuntu collect telemetry data from their OSes? As to the phone, at first I thought the mechanical keyboard is useless, however I can think of situations where on-screen keyboard would cover too much of screen real-estate. External keyboard lets you see more, unobstructed.
- flatiron 6y ago
  Ubuntu collects: Ubuntu version OEM/Manufacturer Device model number BIOS info CPU details GPU details Installed RAM Partition Info Display(s) details Auto-login status Live Patching status Desktop environment Display server Timezone
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - jancsika 6y ago
    Can't you turn that off, though? I think I turned it off on my laptop. How do you turn it off?
- le-mark 6y ago
  Display area is one major benefit. I had a google g1 long ago and I’ve missed that keyboard ever since. Imo pressing physical keys is far superior to pressing glass.
- kenniskrag 6y ago
  may they also would need less energy if you can create a smaller screen and instead add a keyboard (no net loss of content screen space). I do not need a big screen.
log101 6y ago
What is the advantage of the slideout keyboard? It might save some pixels while you type, but it looks very uncomfortable.
- moistbar 6y ago
  Being able to touch-type is the reason I want one. You just can't do that with a touchscreen keyboard.
  - fsflover 6y ago
    You may also like Pinephone with a hardware keyboard mentioned here: https://www.pine64.org/2021/02/15/february-update-show-and-tell/ https://www.pine64.org/2021/02/15/february-update-show-and-t....
  - psychometry 6y ago
    Can you touch type with only your thumbs? I don't think I could, but you'd have to with a keyboard that small.
    - darau1 6y ago
      I was able to touch type with my thumbs on my blackberry, in the before-times
    - volkl48 6y ago
      Long-term Blackberry user (and I still have a Blackberry Key2) - Yep. I can type out entire grammatically correct paragraphs without looking at the phone at all. That muscle memory was carefully honed in the late 2000s high school classroom! It's only if I get into the infrequently used symbols that I have to check what I'm typing. In a quick online typing test I get around 60wpm/300cpm (characters per minute), 0.0% errors.
    - andagainagain 6y ago
      touch type is just muscle memory - you absolutely can touch type with physical keyboards once you learn how. touch typing on a virtual keyboard on a flat glass screen is hard because they keys are less accurate and don't give you feedback to whether you actually hit a key or not. So you CAN touch type on a screen, just with errors. Way too many errors. Which is why autocorrect is aggressive on all phones these days. Back when we had physical keyboards on every phone, we didn't need autocorrect because the typing was accurate.
raesene9 6y ago
For another option, along similar lines, which has been shipping for a while now, there's https://store.planetcom.co.uk/collections/devices https://store.planetcom.co.uk/collections/devices
- antattack 6y ago
  They seem to have better keyboards, however clam-shell design disadvantage is that you always have to have the keyboard out in order to use the device. It's more like a miniature laptop than a phone.
  - Wildgoose 6y ago
    The Astro Slide isn't a clam-shell, unlike their first two offerings. I have a Gemini which I use as a PDA and it's great. The Astro Slide should give me the best of both worlds, (I have one on order).
    - spurgu 6y ago
      Yeah I've looked at the Gemini and Cosmo before but the sliding design of ProX and Astro Slide is what makes me seriously consider buying one of these devices (in which case I'd lean towards the Astro).
- cstross 6y ago
  Note that Planet Computers are currently developing the Cosmo Communicator, which kinda-sorta resembles the Pro1X layout, except with the (vastly superior) Psion-descended keyboard design of the earlier PC machines: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transformer/ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transforme... As it's their third iteration I'm reasonably confident that this isn't vapourware and will ship some time after June (it was originally promised for March but COVID19 has hit everyone -- along with chip shortages). For those who haven't used a Gemini PDA or a Cosmo Communicator, the Planet Computers smartphones have a keyboard descended from the late 1990s Psion Series 5 PDA, which actually has reasonable travel and tactile feedback rather than the chiclet style keys of the Nokia N900 or Blackberry or Pro1X. This means the Astro Slide is inevitably going to be a bit fatter than the Pro1X, but be easier to type on (and has a similar dual-mode use case, with a big touchscreen and a slide-out keyboard). The Astro Slide also promises 5G connectivity, 8Gb of RAM, and support for Linux OSs as well as Android.
ekianjo 6y ago
Ubuntu touch is the worst of all choices for a linux phone right now. It is based on obsolete ubuntu sources and the browser is really limited
- jeroenhd 6y ago
  From what I've seen, Ubuntu Touch is the best mobile "Linux" distributions. Other, purely Linux operating systems lack common apps, have janky UIs and are barely functional on most hardware. Ubuntu Touch runs on whatever the manufacturer or Qualcom have put down as a basis, instead of relying on a standard, open Linux kernel with open drivers. This has all the downsides of the Android kernel, but at least it's functional. The point of having it run Ubuntu Touch is to show that the phone is not locked down like nearly every other (usable) phone in the market today. If pmOS or KDE Plasma get ported to the device, those systems will probably have the preference of most die-hard Linux users. Doing so requires a lot of work, though, and I wouldn't be surprised if improving or even just using the reverse-engineered drivers for many kinds of smartphone hardware would violate the NDA manufacturers sign with Qualcom. To me, this device looks like what the Oneplus One looked like when it was first announced: an Android phone that doesn't lock its users out of the system. Getting any non-Android OS to run on the device underlines that without going through the effort to make everything nice and open.
  - mariusor 6y ago
    > Other, purely Linux operating systems lack common apps, have janky UIs and are barely functional on most hardware. You should probably take a look at Sailfish OS, they had about 5 years of head start to other mobile interfaces on top of vanilla linux. Jolla is one of the few companies that tried to innovate in the mobile UX space over this time in my opinion.
- andagainagain 6y ago
  But it is far more likely to actually work. Obsolete sources or not, they're further ahead for actual phone stuff than basically anyone else.
- realusername 6y ago
dmingod666 6y ago
I used to own an HTC one with a slide out similar to this, that was a good phone..
tifadg1 6y ago
For english language, swipe typing coupled with autocorrect works astonishingly well. So much so that I use it regularly because of lazyness. What segment does the physical keyboard appeal to? Youngins were born and raised touching the screen, so it's archaic to them. Old timers are jaded at this point to either wait for their dream phone or buy any cheap crap. So who's the target for this 900 usd device?
- rorykoehler 6y ago
  Most of what I wrote makes no sense. The previous sentence has only one to be to get the just. I swiped the above and you can see the results.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- dijit 6y ago
  There are a cohort of people who abhor touchscreens for typing but there currently exists nothing that caters to them. Everyone making phones caters to the 80% case, there are economic reasons for this (supply chain runoffs, manufacturing equipment and software) so making something for the remaining 20% cases is increasingly expensive. To answer your question directly, me (a 31 year old white man technologist) and my friend (a 28 year old white man technologist) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
- blandflakes 6y ago
  Honestly, I find that it works astonishingly poorly. Autocorrect is often wrong, sometimes showing the right thing milliseconds before second-guessing itself into a totally wrong word, so now I'm having to backspace because for some reason typing the actual letters I want is bad user interface. Agreed regarding target audience, though.
  - antibuddy 6y ago
    I have a hybrid experience where I really need swipe to get things done fast, but I always disable autocorrect, because when I actually type I don't like to be corrected. This way I can put the anger on me rather than the software.
developer92 6y ago
The first consumer smartphone to run lineage out of the box is a bogus claim. I personally owned a whileyfox for some years which I bought only because of that.
metalliqaz 6y ago
Pro^1 X? What kind of name is that? That's like calling a sports car the Sport^GT R
- jjgreen 6y ago
  ... or a programming language C♯
darau1 6y ago
I really wish they would just make some keyboard-case-love-child for some of the more popular mainstream devices. I really want a physical keyboard, but I don't want to give up my daily driver for a $900 unknown variable.
- Pxtl 6y ago
  They were supposed to. This company was launched on an ill-fated Kickstarter for a slide-out keyboard attachment called "Livermorium" for the Moto Z. It's the reason I owned a Moto Z. I have no interest in buying a no-name brand phone, though.
  - AnssiH 6y ago
    I got the Moto Z keyboard attachment, and it was too clunky to use compared to e.g. my current Pro1 or whatever I had back then (BlackBerry Priv probably).
  - corty 6y ago
    Problem is, Motorola took its time certifying the keyboard and by the time they were done, hardware components where no longer available, so they had to redesign. Same thing happened again, but they successfully delivered a few prototypes. After which Motorola discontinued the attachment ports altogether. So fuck Motorola, never again. And from what I've seen in the Pro1 (no X), it works pretty well, does what it is supposed to. Price could be lower, but there is always something.
    - Pxtl 6y ago
      Okay, the cert delay killing it sucks... but discontinued? There were 4 generations of Moto Z with the port. That's a long window.
- HideousKojima 6y ago
  The PinePhone will be coming out with a keyboard add-on soon
rjsw 6y ago
A keyboard is under development for the PinePhone.
adenozine 6y ago
Nerd in me: This is badass, I want one. Brooklyn in me: My entire office is going to absolutely clown me for life if they ever see me with this goofy thing. It's a brave device, that's for sure.
- faichai 6y ago
  Going to school, age 17, in 1995 gleefully making notes on a Psion Series 3a was brave! Carrying around a no-name phone in 2021 that your friends take the piss out of, means you just need new friends.
  - andagainagain 6y ago
    once I stopped respecting coworkers personal decisions, it made more sense to just ignore them and get what makes sense to me. they don't like my phone, too bad for them. I don't like theirs.
- AnssiH 6y ago
  Huh, everyone is always intrigued by my Pro1 (looks same as Pro1X but black).
puzzlingcaptcha 6y ago
The Nokia Communicator dream never dies. The original 9000 series was first introduced impressive 25 years ago. At one point I had a HP Jornada 720 running Jlime Linux with a PCMCIA WiFi card for wardriving (15 years ago). One of my first smartphones was Xperia Mini Pro with a slide-out keyboard and I loved that thing (10 years ago). This is also around the time of Nokia N900 which had a deserved cult following. These days I think regular smartphones are good enough for quickly replying to a mail, for any serious work I'd use a laptop. I don't see a niche for this any more.
- Wildgoose 6y ago
  I had the original Nokia Communicator as well. And I still have a Jornada 720. I also had a Psion 5 and a Psion-style keyboard (from the same designer) is being used on the Astro Slide mobile phone which is scheduled to ship in June, (I have one on order). https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transformer/x/7586366#/ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transforme...
alfl 6y ago
Physical keyboards have interesting usage modalities. One of my colleagues told me she missed physical keyboards because touchscreens are harder to use with acrylic nails. They can be used without turning the screen on, etc. I wonder to what extent input technologies have a fashion cycle.
jmartrican 6y ago
Would this have access/capability to install apps from the google app store?
- AnssiH 6y ago
  Sure, if you use Android on it. I have the Pro1 (previous gen) and it is fully Google certified. Probably not if you use Ubuntu on it.
pabs3 6y ago
Will this have mainline Linux support?
growt 6y ago
Am I the only one who thinks that "finger model" on the landingpage is a poor choice? It looks like you couldn't even use the device with those nails.
- nabakin 6y ago
  The promo video barely showed someone actually using the keyboard too. From what they did show, it looked cheap.
- kevingadd 6y ago
  Yeah, with nails that long that keyboard would be borderline unusable. You'd need a keyboard with near-zero travel because you can't apply much force to the tips, and the layout of that keyboard is too dense to use the flat part of your nails or your fingertips. A touchscreen is not very hard to operate, at least, but it's still a bit more difficult and I think having the keyboard out would also make the touchscreen unusable with long nails. Probably not a big concern for their target audience, but definitely a problem for me.
- orthecreedence 6y ago
  No, it's a fine choice. If you can use it with those nails, then most people can use it. And with long acrylics, where there's a will, there's usually a way.
cmrdporcupine 6y ago
So many OS options, but no webOS open source edition. I might get one just to port it. I miss that OS and my Palm Pre.
- fragile_frogs 6y ago
  webOS was such a good mobile OS, the Palm Pre is hands down my favourite phone. Imagine how awesome webOS would be today with the support of PWAs?
artembugara 6y ago
Last summer, Maksym and I (2 co-founders of NewsCatcher, full team) went to the beach. It was like 1 hour walk from the place we were (where all laptops were). By the time we were at the beach, we began receiving the alarms that our ElasticSearch does not receive any new data. Maksym had to debug from my iPhone XR (and he actually succeeded in 20 mins). That was this time I though it would be nice to have a phone like Pro1X.
- ISL 6y ago
  A small folding bluetooth keyboard can be awesome in this situation.
- reasonabl_human 6y ago
  While it is badass that you guys fixed a prod issue on the beach using an iPhone, I don’t think this new device is the only / best solution. The situation could also be solved by keeping a laptop or an iPad with a keyboard case in your car / bag if you are the one constantly ‘on-call’... most people have predefined on-call hours and wouldn’t need to sacrifice their stable daily driver cell just for physical keys
  - artembugara 6y ago
    I agree, however, I'd prefer just putting this phone into my pocket. iPad with a keyboard is definitely better but it's also not compact. Plus, I don't really want to bring it to the beach (because no matter what I always end up cleaning all my stuff from the sand)
FlyingSnake 6y ago
Looks quite cool, and seeing that the order page is taking a hammering, I'm sure lots of orders are being placed. However the name reminds me of HBOs Silicon Valley show where they end up over-jargoning the product names. I wish they had come up with a more friendlier and catchy name like "Slidey" or something.
- tedcrilly 6y ago
  And they could then call NFC "Slidey sense".
froh42 6y ago
I wonder why such devices have such a "meh" processor. This thing has a worse one than my several year old OnePlus 5. Don't know if it can do HDMI or DisplayPort output, but assuming that (and using a bluetooth keyboard and mouse) it might be a ultra-portable work machine for me, so I don't need to schlep my laptop around. But not with a meh processor, then it is only a phone with a keyboard.
- dmos62 6y ago
  But a non-meh processor means less battery time. I'd prefer meh processor to meh battery life. Meh.
  - kevingadd 6y ago
    That's not necessarily true, if it remains clocked down most of the time and is using the low power 'little' cores the difference isn't going to be that significant.
    - dmos62 6y ago
      Can someone expand on this? My anecdotal experience contradicts this and I don't know much about CPUs.
      - bogwog 6y ago
        ARM chips are heterogenous, so while they may claim to have 8 cores, not all of those cores are the same. Some are low-power cores meant to save battery power, and the high power cores are only activated when necessary. Plus regardless of that, just because a CPU is old doesn't mean it's more power efficient than a new one. If anything, it's usually the other way around. edit: more info at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_big.LITTLE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_big.LITTLE
  - SergeAx 6y ago
    For Linux device I would expect a system slider setting like "speed/battery".
andrew_ 6y ago
It's astonishing to me that folks are still releasing phones which have no IP rating, let alone devices that are not fully waterproof (IP67). I'm probably in a class of folks who are in and around water more than most, however the flagships have all adopted this.
- fsflover 6y ago
  AFAIK it's very hard for a small company to make their device waterproof. And we certrainly need more competition in the smartphone duopoly.
- andagainagain 6y ago
  This will always be a problem, because the problem is basically "It suprises me that not everyone has the fancy features advertised 3 years ago on a flagship device". It's like people being suprised that the newest laptops don't all have high DPS displays and thin bezels, but they ignore that 1 - those aren't easy to engineer and 2 - they sacrifice things like repairability, reliability, and manufacturing cost to do so.
sheepybloke 6y ago
Like the concept, but $800 for a phone with Snapdragon 662[1]? Even with the keyboard and other pluses, that's a hard sell. That processor will be fine for most applications, but I'd hope for something slightly more powerful, like a 730G. I feel like a 662 might be too limiting, and at $800, that's a very crowded market, even if you are targeting a more open device. [1] https://www.notebookcheck.net/Qualcomm-Snapdragon-662-Processor-Benchmarks-and-Specs.497538.0.html https://www.notebookcheck.net/Qualcomm-Snapdragon-662-Proces...
- aceazzameen 6y ago
  Yeah, I was fully on board until I saw the processor.
- lallysingh 6y ago
  They probably don't have the quantity to get access to better chips+support.
Wildgoose 6y ago
I have another British 'phone with a better keyboard on order for delivery starting in June: The Astro Slide 5G from Planet Computers: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transformer/x/7586366#/ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transforme... I bought their Gemini offering which is a great PDA but not so good as a mobile phone. Their new offering promises to provide a solution for both.
- undecisive 6y ago
  I'm also looking forward to the Slide. Interesting to note that even with all the kerfuffle surrounding their processor "downgrade" during production, the Astro Slide should be a bit more powerful [1] Hopefully it will land sooner too... [1] https://nanoreview.net/en/soc-compare/qualcomm-snapdragon-662-vs-mediatek-dimensity-800 https://nanoreview.net/en/soc-compare/qualcomm-snapdragon-66...
- yellowapple 6y ago
  Yep, I'm in the Astro early bird group, too. Looking forward to trying it out; I haven't used the Gemini or Cosmo, so I ain't really sure what to expect, but it looks nice enough.
deleted 6y ago
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_thejrk 6y ago
HTC Apache was the last phone I used w/ a full keyboard. I've wished several times I had a full keyboard on my phone.
Ashanmaril 6y ago
It's a sad fact of life that if you want a good phone that will age okay, and be supported for at least a few years with OS/security updates, and will have decent customer support if you run into issues, you're just gonna have to get a phone from one of the big guys. Making a phone is hard. Every time I see one of these niche phones that tries to appeal to a crowd with offers of "privacy" or "user control" I think it's neat and it would be nice if it was realistic. But it's just gonna be another poorly-supported phone, offered by a small company that doesn't have resources to handle the inevitable complications of selling a smartphone, and where you have the option of being either in: * Google's privacy nightmare Android ecosystem * Un-Googled Android where you can't use the Play Store and a bunch of apps you'd want to use don't work * Some kind of Linux distro for phones that will probably have an even worse app ecosystem than the previous option
- varispeed 6y ago
  I never needed customer support for a phone and never done any updates (I have not updated my phone for like 3 years, because I know the next update disables call recording). I'd love a phone with good specs, as many open parts as possible and with all schematics and BOM so I could fix it myself if something goes wrong.
  - fsflover 6y ago
    > I have not updated my phone for like 3 years So you are using an outdated browser with security bugs? Good luck with that...
    - varispeed 6y ago
      I think the browser itself gets updates, but I have not updated the OS. I also only visit a handful of websites that I trust. If I want to "wander off" then I am using Tails on a dedicated computer.
  - bradfa 6y ago
    I had the secure enclave in my iPhone 8 fail about 6 months after I bought it. Solution was to spend about half an hour on the phone with Apple while they ran remote diagnostics and then take it to an Apple store 30 minutes drive away. 10 minutes spent with Apple store employee while they ran even more diagnostics resulted in them handing me a replacement phone and I walked out. The ability to fairly quickly resolve my hardware problem greatly impressed me. I expect I could get a similar level of service with a Samsung device at a non-Samsung retailer, or if I bought the phone originally through a mobile phone operator's storefront and brought it back to the same store for warranty, but there's no promise of that. For something which is critical to the operation of my life, I have chosen to compromise on some desires and will likely continue to buy iPhones in the future simply because they work fairly well and when they don't I can get it fixed rather easily and with minimal downtime by Apple itself.
seanhunter 6y ago
There's no free lunch, and it's easy to overlook the compromises involved in the devices that used to have physical keyboards. By modern standards, blackberrys had a woefully small screen and phones with slideout keyboards were very fat. This device doesn't look fat which suggests to me that the compromise might be either battery life or low processor power. That said, although this is definitely not for me, it's generally good for the market to have some devices that are genuinely different rather than just another "me too" Samsung/iphone lookalike.
- wazoox 6y ago
  It is really fat: about 14mm, nearly twice as thick as most current phones.
  - Snitch-Thursday 6y ago
    I own one. Mine feels no thicker than the Samsung Galaxy in a case. As long as it perceptually feels more or less like a box of playing cards, I'm not worried about thickness.
  - degenerate 6y ago
    And that's without a case! I can't even imagine what a case would start to look like for this thing. It would be its own feat of engineering... Then again, if you're always holding it with two hands, who needs a case, right? :þ
    - ethbr0 6y ago
      Half-height, allowing the screen to slide out? Probably with a separate one with 4-corner shock bumpers on the screen.
      - notum 6y ago
        Or a zip-lock bag. Which would also make it waterproof! It's thin, light, when inflated it provides excellent protection, why doesn't everyone carry their phones in a sandwich bag?
acd 6y ago
Happy there are more Linux phones on the market. When there is a good premium Linux phone with open boot loader I will buy one. Smartphones are really small computers and we should be able to run whatever operating system one wants on them. Freedom as free choice of os.
Causality1 6y ago
I feel like there's not going to be a lot of overlap between people who want physical keyboards and people who like curved screens.
andreygrehov 6y ago
I see positive comments about the keyboard, but is it really a good UX to type on such a small keyboard? I mean, when you use your laptop, pretty much all of your fingers are involved in the process of typing, whereas if the same keyboard is part of a mobile phone, you only use your thumbs, which is the opposite of how qwerty keyboards supposed to be used. It feels like the idea of a full-blown keyboard on a mobile phone sounds cool, but when it comes to practice, must be a complete misuse of a technology. It's like if smartwatches were made with 8K display – sounds cool, but how practical it really is?
- _nalply 6y ago
  Some handicapped people, like my wife, need a physical keyboard. My wife is happy with the keyboard in Blackberry Key2.
- ethbr0 6y ago
  See historical: Danger Hiptop, aka Sidekick https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danger_Hiptop https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danger_Hiptop
- chaorace 6y ago
  I think the main advantage is blind typing. No amount of muscle memory can trump the tactile feedback of raised keys and home-row notches. When you're forced to rely on sight, you make more errors and are limited to using just one finger at a time (because your eyes can only focus on one spot at once). With that being said, I can blind type on my smartphone, just not with a QWERTY IME. I instead use a 4x4 grid-layout (MessagEase [1]) that's large enough to consistently hit the correct zones without any visual feedback. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MessagEase https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MessagEase
  - stinos 6y ago
    and are limited to using just one finger at a time (because your eyes can only focus on one spot at once). That isn't entirely accurate. It's not because you focus at point x, that another finger cannot be moving at x + y cm and perform the correct action there. I never learned to type blindly. Or at least not in the way this is normally done. However I do have enough muscle memory by now that I can look down at the keyboard, put a couple of fingers in what roughly looks like the right spot and then start typing away with multiple fingers, from time to time laying focus in the center of the keyboard only.
_nalply 6y ago
I would buy a Linux smartphone with a Blackberry style keyboard (this means no fiddly slideouts) for my handicapped wife as long as Android apps can be made to work, by sideloading, emulating or whatever.
IceWreck 6y ago
Uhhh, that lady's long fingernails using the small keyboard in the promotional video are annoying.
yrgulation 6y ago
This brings about fond memories of my htc tyntyn. Shame it ran windows but it was a cool device. I could ssh into my servers back when almost no one even saw a touch screen, and the keyboard albeit small, was amazing. If this device delivers then i am 100% buying it.
Sodman 6y ago
I still consider my old Nokia E70[0] my favorite phone of all time, so I am definitely in the target demographic for this, as I'm 100% sold on the usefulness of a physical keyboard on a phone... However the CPU just doesn't match the "pro" branding, or the price range. I'd personally rather throw an extra $200-300 on top to get a flagship CPU and then it would be close to a perfect phone for me! As it currently is, the Snapdragon 662 shipped in the pro-1x gets blown away by my current Pixel 5's Snapdragon 765G - and Pixel phones recently have been generally characterized as having "above-average hardware specs but not enough to justify flagship prices". Separately, I am also curious for a phone like this that could run Android, LineageOS, and Ubuntu Touch - are there "dual boot" options in the mobile space? With 256GB storage it seems like it should be possible. I'd like to have old reliable Android as a daily driver, but maybe periodically drop into a less stable but more flexible environment like ubuntu. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_E70 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_E70
- yjftsjthsd-h 6y ago
  I have a Gemini that can triple boot ex. between Android, Debian, and Sailfish, so it's been done, but that was designed in by the manufacturer. There used to be some Android multiboot hack (multirom or something?), but I don't know details or if it's still around.
- megous 6y ago
  There's "dual boot" in mobile space https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GjXQFnMHGY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GjXQFnMHGY :)
- k_ 6y ago
  Seems like we're looking for similar things. I am currently waiting for delivery of my Astro Slide [0] [0]: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transformer https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transforme... which has android / linux dual boot. Not sure if performance are what you are looking for.
  - Sodman 6y ago
    This looks much more like what I'm looking for alright! Doing some background research it looks like they had some issues with their chipset supplier and had to downgrade the chip a little, but performance benchmarks put it ~around the same place as my Pixel 5's current CPU, which I'd say is much more acceptable (if not totally cutting edge flagship-tier) for a phone in 2021! At $576 (Edit: now $621, looks like the early bird just sold out!) this also seems like a much better deal than the pro-1x at $800! I'm always worried though when the "pledge store" for these things says things like "Ships March 2021!" but their most recent update says they've just finalized their PCB and are just starting testing...
L29Ah 6y ago
likely doesn't run GNU/Linux, as only android drivers-supporting distros are listed as supported so plenty of blobs and not much to upstream
Cu3PO42 6y ago
I used to use a Motorola Milestone/Droid. It was great, I really loved the slideout keyboard and could touch type on it. Even with just two fingers actively in use, it felt great. Also being able to type something in landscape mode while still being able to see anything but the textbox and keyboard was phenomenal. All of that said, typing on a touch screen is fine and I don't think I'm willing to pay the premium for such a device anymore.
smashah 6y ago
can't wait for when they come out with a N900/N810 style keyboard!
whalesalad 6y ago
I type so incredibly fast on an iPhone keyboard that I have a hard time understanding the appeal of a (physical) tiny little keyboard like this.
- topspin 6y ago
  I mostly just speak to my Android. The speech recognition is so good now I rarely have to "type" anything.
dschuetz 6y ago
Welp, the pre-order site is down, I guess due to the hug of death from HN? I'd also really like to order one of those.
yndoendo 6y ago
I bought into the original project and still looking forward to receiving it, even with design changes. Currently have a 5+ old phone that stopped being updated after 2 years by one of those big players. Hopefully this will push to the Linux mainline and have longer security. Only use these as a phone, messaging, and reading news / articles. Don't game or other things. Hate using touch keyboard so much that when I'm reading and wish to comment I waiting until I get home and have access to a real keyboard. Even installed KDE Connect so I can use my laptop / desktop keyboard to type messages. Hate touch keyboards so much when you actually want / need to convey information. Specs are not the best but that is not my focal point. An usable phone with long security updates that runs a mainline Linux kernel is. Hoping in the long run hackers will pick at it and find a way to de-blob to evolve it even more.
aquir 6y ago
Promising but I will wait until to see some independent reviews. The reviews for other Linux phones are always terrible so I am really looking for a simple smartphone running Linux
- osamagirl69 6y ago
  The only change between this phone and the pro1 (non-X) is the downgraded processor -- so I encourage you to check out the original pro1 reviews. For the most part they are 'if you want a keyboard it is a good phone--it is otherwise mediocre in every way'. Also - the 'linux' support is a bit of a stretch, the community ported over ubuntu touch which is basically just android.
svacko 6y ago
The pre-order site https://store.fxtec.com/product/fxtec-pro%C2%B9-x-256-8gb/#toggle-id-1 https://store.fxtec.com/product/fxtec-pro%C2%B9-x-256-8gb/#t... says "Be one of the first to pre-order your Pro1 today. Shipping globally is estimated to be September 2019." ? Is it in the pre-order state since then?
- xearl 6y ago
  That page you linked to is for the Pro-1. The OP is about the newer Pro-1x.
  - LilBytes 6y ago
    Well, was the Pro-1 ever delivered!?
    - Snitch-Thursday 6y ago
      Yes. I have one. Mine was ordered in Feb 2019 for shipping in August 2019. Come February 2020 it finally came in. Biggest favorite is that I love they keyboard. I run the LineageOS 17.1 simply because I've been too lazy to flash LineageOS 18 unofficial. tdm the primary developer did a great job making the keyboard act well, and other developers made it behave via an app in Stock Android. Second biggest favorite is that it has the trifecta of features I require from any phone: unlockable bootloader, microsd card, headphone jack. I prefer a removable battery but alas those are as thin as hen's teeth. My biggest beef with this phone is that it has spotty voice reception. I have to stand in a particular spot in my house to not have my UDP packets drop off. Data reception is fine and when I do calls over signal or duo (wifi) it works a treat. My second biggest beef would be the lack of snap-on case options like the old Nokias. I'm trying to figure out if someone does a 3d printed case or what, but with this curved screen, I'm nervous that each day could be this phone's last with just one fall.
    - jk7tarYZAQNpTQa 6y ago
      Top comment as of right now says [1] they ordered one but was never delivered, and the seller never answered to emails. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26662123 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26662123
jascii 6y ago
Is the chipset supported by the mainline kernel? Their earlier "linux phones" basicly needed an android kernel and Linux support was close to non-existant.
darksaints 6y ago
If you would have asked me 10 years ago, this would have been my ideal phone. But not anymore. For two reasons: 1) touchscreens have gotten a lot better...they're not perfect, but they're finally good enough for a phone. And not having a physical keyboard means fewer moving parts, and fewer physical design constraints, which translates to higher reliability and better performance. 2) Android and linux in general are not good enough for phones. I want a better security model. Android could have been built on top of any kernel...they had to build all of the userland and drivers from scratch. I'm disappointed that Linux was chosen instead of something like L4 or QNX, which would have allowed us to sandbox code that could be potentially malicious, deny access to sensitive resources like location, etc. It would also be far more reliable, with the ability to restart individual malfunctioning driver code instead of your whole phone. And most of the freedoms that come from rooting your phone would be built in.
dbeley 6y ago
It doesn't give you as much control as a Pinephone or a Purism smartphone, as it relies on a ton of proprietary blob that will never reach Linux mainline.
- swiley 6y ago
  This easy to tell, if it has a Qualcomm SoC in it chances are you won't be able to run a reasonable OS on it.
aidenn0 6y ago
I've had phones with landscape and portrait mode keyboards, and the latter were invariably better. Maybe it's just that Palm and RIM were better at making keyboards, but I'm not interested in a landscape keyboard at this point
- 29083011397778 6y ago
  I would put an offensively large bet on BlackBerry putting absurd amounts of effort into their keyboards, instead of landscape being inherently worse. Based on everything I've ever seen, heard, and read, they cared deeply about hardware design. "Losing the Signal", regarding the rise and fall on BlackBerry, made it clear they tested for things like drops extensively, and (IIRC) went as far as literally throwing at least one device around to ensure it would survive. And then they were pushed to push the Storm out the door, which pushed many people away. Things only really went downhill from there, sadly. That said, my KeyOne is still my favourite phone ever, and I'll carry on with it as long as I can purchase replacement components :)
  - aidenn0 6y ago
    On further reflection, I think that it's just not that much worse to two-thumb type on a narrow keyboard, and a landscape isn't big enough to five finger type, but to big to single-thumb type.
devilduck 6y ago
Would rather have a heavily upgraded N900
als0 6y ago
https://vimeo.com/471380106#t=105s https://vimeo.com/471380106#t=105s The moment when the woman tries to multitask Excel and Slack at the same time is hard to take seriously!
jimmyblanco 6y ago
Which CPU is shipped in this phone? https://www.fxtec.com/index https://www.fxtec.com/index says: Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 MSM8998 however, https://www.fxtec.com/pro1x https://www.fxtec.com/pro1x says: Qualcomm Snapdragon 662
namlaswad 6y ago
Reminds me of that failed kickstarter campaign
simplyaccont 6y ago
It's all nice and stuff, but does it support VoLTE ? With impending shutdown of 3G networks in USA next year, without VoLTE, you can't really use phone part of the smartphone
- commandnotfound 6y ago
  Disabling the 3G network doesn't mean they are going to disable the older 2G networks that are widely used to make calls even if connected through LTE. Here (Czech Republic) the 3G network was disabled today and the phone part of my phone works even though VoLTE is not being used.
  - simplyaccont 6y ago
    2G networks are already down here. Operators won't activate phones that do not support VoLTE and sending emails for past year+ warning of shutdown of 3G network
takeda 6y ago
I placed an order for their previous model, they assured me that I should get it 4 - 8 weeks. After I didn't get anything for 6 months I messaged them that I want to withdraw my order (the phone had already old hardware during release, and it was a year old when I ordered it, but at the same time it cost as much as a high end phone). I got no response from them. I then contacted my credit card company and they charged back. It sucks, because, I would really love phone with a hardware keyboard. I would place an order, but am afraid of the same thing happening again.
- hyko 6y ago
  Guess there’s always the Gemini - bonus is that it effectively has a Psion 5 keyboard https://store.planetcom.co.uk/products/gemini-pda-1 https://store.planetcom.co.uk/products/gemini-pda-1
  - ruph123 6y ago
    Or even their next product which looks very promising: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transformer#/ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transforme...
    - hyko 6y ago
      Looks nice, seriously tempted!
- jk7tarYZAQNpTQa 6y ago
  So a scam, like the Escobar phone[1]? [1] Marques Brownlee - The Truth About the Escobar Folding Phone! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8FJSjy3bXA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8FJSjy3bXA [1] Marques Brownlee - Escobar Responds! A PSA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns8ydpZ5-4o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns8ydpZ5-4o
- usr1106 6y ago
  There is a comment further down saying they received theirs 7 months after the promised delivery date. So not a scam, but certainly over-optimistic promises.
opan 6y ago
Don't expect support as good as a PinePhone. If this is anything like the Gemini PDA, it will only really work well with Android, and there will be many proprietary blobs that are reused via libhybris because of drivers being Android-only. There are phones that only officially support Android and get mainlined and can run postmarketOS, but the shim that sorta-kinda works may dissuade people from doing this proper level of support. Again, look at the Gemini PDA and how its pmOS support is worse than some Samsung phones. MediaTek and binary blobs are the source of the problem, but a company choosing these parts and then over-promising GNU/Linux support should not be ignored either. If you've ever shopped for a router to put OpenWrt on, or tried to run the Linux-libre kernel on a laptop, you'll know some companies are to be avoided. Broadcom in a router is never good, for example, and because ASUS chooses them often, ASUS is not really good either.
willcipriano 6y ago
Website is slow to load but I finally got to see the price after a few attempts: $899 USD. I love the idea and really need a new phone but man I wish it was a little cheaper. $500 or so it would be a no brainer but at close to a grand I feel the need to shop around.
theodric 6y ago
I bought into the Planet Gemini on the promise of a Linux-multiboot Android phone with a physical keyboard. The keyboard is too small (and poor) to be usable, the Linux distributions never progressed beyond alpha quality (not graphics acceleration even!) and the Android base was abandoned after two major revs. This one looks very much the same, down to the software base. I've learned my lesson about these kinds of devices, and I won't be going back to the well for another drink. I'd encourage you to consider well before getting too excited.
dusted 6y ago
give me a smartphone with a slide-out t9 compatible physical keyboard
auiya 6y ago
No way, I can type an order of magnitude faster on a soft keyboard.
OnionBlender 6y ago
I don't need a permanent keyboard. Can someone suggest a good portable Bluetooth keyboard for Android?
smdz 6y ago
Had been waiting for something like this few years back and with Ubuntu. But with M1 chip's success, I think we are much closer and it could be worth waiting for an iPhone (or a bulky iPhone) with something like MacOS that docks into a desktop or lapdock.
PiotrVonKleve 6y ago
For full keyboard I would suggest the Titan [0] from unihertz for $340 (QWERTY 4G Rugged Smartphone) with 6GB RAM and 128GB Storage. I don't, but the specs look interesting. [0] https://www.unihertz.com/titan.html https://www.unihertz.com/titan.html

I see little advantage vs. any other Android smartphone + Bluetooth keyboard of your choice.

Sodman 6y ago
Being built right into the phone is a huge advantage! Even if you manage to get a perfect bluetooth connection (which, on Android, is a much bigger ask than many realize), and ignore the fact that you now have another separate device to charge - there's no beating this form factor. Your options are to use a horrible oversized clamshell design (eg [0]) that turns your phone into a tablet, or don't physically attach to your phone at all and end up being a 2nd device / accessory to carry around with you / manage / lose. [0]https://www.amazon.com/BESTLIFE-Universal-Wireless-Bluetooth-Keyboard/dp/B07MCTW6BD/ https://www.amazon.com/BESTLIFE-Universal-Wireless-Bluetooth...

Seems pretty cool. This SOC is bound to have pretty good upstream linux support to, since the Snapdragon 660 is in very good shape.

floatboth 6y ago
The 662 is much newer (what a weird numbering scheme…) so there's probably many differences to the 660..
- robert_foss 6y ago
  It is likely based on an older silicon base design. Snapdragon 662 seems to have the internal Qcom id sm6115[1]. Being based on linux v4.19[2] also seems to point in this direction. Another hint is it shipping the same CPU core versions as the 660. It seems to be a 11nm part as opposed to the 660 which is a 14nm part. This all being said, it won't be plug & play with upstream linux today. But probably soon enough. This project likely is based on Qcom downstream kernels for the moment. [1] https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/qualcomm/snapdragon_600/662 https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/qualcomm/snapdragon_600/662 [2] https://github.com/moto-sm6115/kernel_motorola_bengalito https://github.com/moto-sm6115/kernel_motorola_bengalito

camillomiller 6y ago

I tell you: this is the year of Linux on Smartphones. jk

fsflover 6y ago

AFAIK it has proprietary drivers probably preventing future updates (like for other Android phones). I prefer Purism Librem 5 instead, which gives true freedom.

enriquto 6y ago
Yes, it's really absurd that a niche phone "that gives you control" shuts off most of its potential clients by offering them a phone based on non-free software that they cannot modify.

gue5t 6y ago

"LINEAGEOS, UBUNTU TOUCH or ANDROID" is a euphemism for "we did not do the important, hard work of upstreaming drivers". This phone might be perfectly nice, but it's a "Linux phone" in a marketing sense only; nobody has properly ported Linux to it, and you'll be stuck with an ancient kernel full of proprietary userspace blobs. I'd love to hear otherwise, but I've seen this pattern repeat a number of times (the Gemini PDA and successors, various "secure" phones, essentially all the Ubuntu Touch devices https://phone.docs.ubuntu.com/en/devices/devices https://phone.docs.ubuntu.com/en/devices/devices, etc.) and those who do put in the critical driver work are in-touch enough to know it's worth being explicit about upfront.

robert_foss 6y ago
You can't really blame a tiny manufacturer for not having all the drivers upstreamed. They probably don't have access to the relevant datasheets even if they had the money/time/developers to pursue full upstreaming. Upstreaming drivers is the vendors responsibility.
- jrwr 6y ago
  even the rPi has a bunch of firmware that just is not open sourced, they used their own kernel for years because of that.

vasilakisfil 6y ago

I would like to see the keyboard layout but I can't find any photo.

developer92 6y ago
There's a photo on the front page...
- vasilakisfil 6y ago
  thanks was from mobile and I couldn't see it. Now from desktop I can see it.
Fnoord 6y ago
See [1], source: FTA. This is the spiritual successor of the Nokia N900, and it isn't a very good keyboard (but a better layout than N900). Its pretty much a rebrand of the same device with the same name from 2019 without the 'X'. Difference is it has better OS support (thanks to XDA, I guess), different SOC (recent SD600 series instead of SD835), and a different colour (blue instead of grey). If you want a very good hardware keyboard use whatever BT or USB (such as HHKB) or try one of the Planet devices (Gemini/Cosmo/Astro). I own a Cosmo, the keyboard is superb. They all have the very same keyboard. Right now, I'd opt for an Astro instead of Cosmo. Also slider instead of candybar + horizontal flip, and a more recent SOC (D800), with a proven track record of keyboard. [1] https://www.fxtec.com/images/pro1x-landscape.jpg https://www.fxtec.com/images/pro1x-landscape.jpg
- antattack 6y ago
  Astro Slide 5G Transformer seems like a really good phone, one that I actually might get once it's past the Indiegogo stage. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transformer#/updates/all https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transforme... EDIT: and it has a backlight keyboard!
  - Fnoord 6y ago

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

antattack 6y ago

The promo for Pro1X makes privacy claims but doesn't Ubuntu collect telemetry data from their OSes? As to the phone, at first I thought the mechanical keyboard is useless, however I can think of situations where on-screen keyboard would cover too much of screen real-estate. External keyboard lets you see more, unobstructed.

flatiron 6y ago
Ubuntu collects: Ubuntu version OEM/Manufacturer Device model number BIOS info CPU details GPU details Installed RAM Partition Info Display(s) details Auto-login status Live Patching status Desktop environment Display server Timezone
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- jancsika 6y ago
  Can't you turn that off, though? I think I turned it off on my laptop. How do you turn it off?
le-mark 6y ago
Display area is one major benefit. I had a google g1 long ago and I’ve missed that keyboard ever since. Imo pressing physical keys is far superior to pressing glass.
kenniskrag 6y ago
may they also would need less energy if you can create a smaller screen and instead add a keyboard (no net loss of content screen space). I do not need a big screen.

log101 6y ago

What is the advantage of the slideout keyboard? It might save some pixels while you type, but it looks very uncomfortable.

moistbar 6y ago
Being able to touch-type is the reason I want one. You just can't do that with a touchscreen keyboard.
- fsflover 6y ago
  You may also like Pinephone with a hardware keyboard mentioned here: https://www.pine64.org/2021/02/15/february-update-show-and-tell/ https://www.pine64.org/2021/02/15/february-update-show-and-t....
- psychometry 6y ago
  Can you touch type with only your thumbs? I don't think I could, but you'd have to with a keyboard that small.
  - darau1 6y ago
    I was able to touch type with my thumbs on my blackberry, in the before-times
  - volkl48 6y ago
    Long-term Blackberry user (and I still have a Blackberry Key2) - Yep. I can type out entire grammatically correct paragraphs without looking at the phone at all. That muscle memory was carefully honed in the late 2000s high school classroom! It's only if I get into the infrequently used symbols that I have to check what I'm typing. In a quick online typing test I get around 60wpm/300cpm (characters per minute), 0.0% errors.
  - andagainagain 6y ago
    touch type is just muscle memory - you absolutely can touch type with physical keyboards once you learn how. touch typing on a virtual keyboard on a flat glass screen is hard because they keys are less accurate and don't give you feedback to whether you actually hit a key or not. So you CAN touch type on a screen, just with errors. Way too many errors. Which is why autocorrect is aggressive on all phones these days. Back when we had physical keyboards on every phone, we didn't need autocorrect because the typing was accurate.

raesene9 6y ago

For another option, along similar lines, which has been shipping for a while now, there's https://store.planetcom.co.uk/collections/devices https://store.planetcom.co.uk/collections/devices

antattack 6y ago
They seem to have better keyboards, however clam-shell design disadvantage is that you always have to have the keyboard out in order to use the device. It's more like a miniature laptop than a phone.
- Wildgoose 6y ago
  The Astro Slide isn't a clam-shell, unlike their first two offerings. I have a Gemini which I use as a PDA and it's great. The Astro Slide should give me the best of both worlds, (I have one on order).
  - spurgu 6y ago
    Yeah I've looked at the Gemini and Cosmo before but the sliding design of ProX and Astro Slide is what makes me seriously consider buying one of these devices (in which case I'd lean towards the Astro).
cstross 6y ago
Note that Planet Computers are currently developing the Cosmo Communicator, which kinda-sorta resembles the Pro1X layout, except with the (vastly superior) Psion-descended keyboard design of the earlier PC machines: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transformer/ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transforme... As it's their third iteration I'm reasonably confident that this isn't vapourware and will ship some time after June (it was originally promised for March but COVID19 has hit everyone -- along with chip shortages). For those who haven't used a Gemini PDA or a Cosmo Communicator, the Planet Computers smartphones have a keyboard descended from the late 1990s Psion Series 5 PDA, which actually has reasonable travel and tactile feedback rather than the chiclet style keys of the Nokia N900 or Blackberry or Pro1X. This means the Astro Slide is inevitably going to be a bit fatter than the Pro1X, but be easier to type on (and has a similar dual-mode use case, with a big touchscreen and a slide-out keyboard). The Astro Slide also promises 5G connectivity, 8Gb of RAM, and support for Linux OSs as well as Android.

ekianjo 6y ago

Ubuntu touch is the worst of all choices for a linux phone right now. It is based on obsolete ubuntu sources and the browser is really limited

jeroenhd 6y ago
From what I've seen, Ubuntu Touch is the best mobile "Linux" distributions. Other, purely Linux operating systems lack common apps, have janky UIs and are barely functional on most hardware. Ubuntu Touch runs on whatever the manufacturer or Qualcom have put down as a basis, instead of relying on a standard, open Linux kernel with open drivers. This has all the downsides of the Android kernel, but at least it's functional. The point of having it run Ubuntu Touch is to show that the phone is not locked down like nearly every other (usable) phone in the market today. If pmOS or KDE Plasma get ported to the device, those systems will probably have the preference of most die-hard Linux users. Doing so requires a lot of work, though, and I wouldn't be surprised if improving or even just using the reverse-engineered drivers for many kinds of smartphone hardware would violate the NDA manufacturers sign with Qualcom. To me, this device looks like what the Oneplus One looked like when it was first announced: an Android phone that doesn't lock its users out of the system. Getting any non-Android OS to run on the device underlines that without going through the effort to make everything nice and open.
- mariusor 6y ago
  > Other, purely Linux operating systems lack common apps, have janky UIs and are barely functional on most hardware. You should probably take a look at Sailfish OS, they had about 5 years of head start to other mobile interfaces on top of vanilla linux. Jolla is one of the few companies that tried to innovate in the mobile UX space over this time in my opinion.
andagainagain 6y ago
But it is far more likely to actually work. Obsolete sources or not, they're further ahead for actual phone stuff than basically anyone else.
realusername 6y ago

dmingod666 6y ago

I used to own an HTC one with a slide out similar to this, that was a good phone..

tifadg1 6y ago

For english language, swipe typing coupled with autocorrect works astonishingly well. So much so that I use it regularly because of lazyness. What segment does the physical keyboard appeal to? Youngins were born and raised touching the screen, so it's archaic to them. Old timers are jaded at this point to either wait for their dream phone or buy any cheap crap. So who's the target for this 900 usd device?

rorykoehler 6y ago
Most of what I wrote makes no sense. The previous sentence has only one to be to get the just. I swiped the above and you can see the results.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
dijit 6y ago
There are a cohort of people who abhor touchscreens for typing but there currently exists nothing that caters to them. Everyone making phones caters to the 80% case, there are economic reasons for this (supply chain runoffs, manufacturing equipment and software) so making something for the remaining 20% cases is increasingly expensive. To answer your question directly, me (a 31 year old white man technologist) and my friend (a 28 year old white man technologist) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
blandflakes 6y ago
Honestly, I find that it works astonishingly poorly. Autocorrect is often wrong, sometimes showing the right thing milliseconds before second-guessing itself into a totally wrong word, so now I'm having to backspace because for some reason typing the actual letters I want is bad user interface. Agreed regarding target audience, though.
- antibuddy 6y ago
  I have a hybrid experience where I really need swipe to get things done fast, but I always disable autocorrect, because when I actually type I don't like to be corrected. This way I can put the anger on me rather than the software.

developer92 6y ago

The first consumer smartphone to run lineage out of the box is a bogus claim. I personally owned a whileyfox for some years which I bought only because of that.

metalliqaz 6y ago

Pro^1 X? What kind of name is that? That's like calling a sports car the Sport^GT R

jjgreen 6y ago
... or a programming language C♯

darau1 6y ago

I really wish they would just make some keyboard-case-love-child for some of the more popular mainstream devices. I really want a physical keyboard, but I don't want to give up my daily driver for a $900 unknown variable.

Pxtl 6y ago
They were supposed to. This company was launched on an ill-fated Kickstarter for a slide-out keyboard attachment called "Livermorium" for the Moto Z. It's the reason I owned a Moto Z. I have no interest in buying a no-name brand phone, though.
- AnssiH 6y ago
  I got the Moto Z keyboard attachment, and it was too clunky to use compared to e.g. my current Pro1 or whatever I had back then (BlackBerry Priv probably).
- corty 6y ago
  Problem is, Motorola took its time certifying the keyboard and by the time they were done, hardware components where no longer available, so they had to redesign. Same thing happened again, but they successfully delivered a few prototypes. After which Motorola discontinued the attachment ports altogether. So fuck Motorola, never again. And from what I've seen in the Pro1 (no X), it works pretty well, does what it is supposed to. Price could be lower, but there is always something.
  - Pxtl 6y ago
    Okay, the cert delay killing it sucks... but discontinued? There were 4 generations of Moto Z with the port. That's a long window.
HideousKojima 6y ago
The PinePhone will be coming out with a keyboard add-on soon

rjsw 6y ago

A keyboard is under development for the PinePhone.

adenozine 6y ago

Nerd in me: This is badass, I want one. Brooklyn in me: My entire office is going to absolutely clown me for life if they ever see me with this goofy thing. It's a brave device, that's for sure.

faichai 6y ago
Going to school, age 17, in 1995 gleefully making notes on a Psion Series 3a was brave! Carrying around a no-name phone in 2021 that your friends take the piss out of, means you just need new friends.
- andagainagain 6y ago
  once I stopped respecting coworkers personal decisions, it made more sense to just ignore them and get what makes sense to me. they don't like my phone, too bad for them. I don't like theirs.
AnssiH 6y ago
Huh, everyone is always intrigued by my Pro1 (looks same as Pro1X but black).

puzzlingcaptcha 6y ago

The Nokia Communicator dream never dies. The original 9000 series was first introduced impressive 25 years ago. At one point I had a HP Jornada 720 running Jlime Linux with a PCMCIA WiFi card for wardriving (15 years ago). One of my first smartphones was Xperia Mini Pro with a slide-out keyboard and I loved that thing (10 years ago). This is also around the time of Nokia N900 which had a deserved cult following. These days I think regular smartphones are good enough for quickly replying to a mail, for any serious work I'd use a laptop. I don't see a niche for this any more.

Wildgoose 6y ago
I had the original Nokia Communicator as well. And I still have a Jornada 720. I also had a Psion 5 and a Psion-style keyboard (from the same designer) is being used on the Astro Slide mobile phone which is scheduled to ship in June, (I have one on order). https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transformer/x/7586366#/ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transforme...

alfl 6y ago

Physical keyboards have interesting usage modalities. One of my colleagues told me she missed physical keyboards because touchscreens are harder to use with acrylic nails. They can be used without turning the screen on, etc. I wonder to what extent input technologies have a fashion cycle.

jmartrican 6y ago

Would this have access/capability to install apps from the google app store?

AnssiH 6y ago
Sure, if you use Android on it. I have the Pro1 (previous gen) and it is fully Google certified. Probably not if you use Ubuntu on it.

pabs3 6y ago

Will this have mainline Linux support?

growt 6y ago

Am I the only one who thinks that "finger model" on the landingpage is a poor choice? It looks like you couldn't even use the device with those nails.

nabakin 6y ago
The promo video barely showed someone actually using the keyboard too. From what they did show, it looked cheap.
kevingadd 6y ago
Yeah, with nails that long that keyboard would be borderline unusable. You'd need a keyboard with near-zero travel because you can't apply much force to the tips, and the layout of that keyboard is too dense to use the flat part of your nails or your fingertips. A touchscreen is not very hard to operate, at least, but it's still a bit more difficult and I think having the keyboard out would also make the touchscreen unusable with long nails. Probably not a big concern for their target audience, but definitely a problem for me.
orthecreedence 6y ago
No, it's a fine choice. If you can use it with those nails, then most people can use it. And with long acrylics, where there's a will, there's usually a way.

cmrdporcupine 6y ago

So many OS options, but no webOS open source edition. I might get one just to port it. I miss that OS and my Palm Pre.

fragile_frogs 6y ago
webOS was such a good mobile OS, the Palm Pre is hands down my favourite phone. Imagine how awesome webOS would be today with the support of PWAs?

artembugara 6y ago

Last summer, Maksym and I (2 co-founders of NewsCatcher, full team) went to the beach. It was like 1 hour walk from the place we were (where all laptops were). By the time we were at the beach, we began receiving the alarms that our ElasticSearch does not receive any new data. Maksym had to debug from my iPhone XR (and he actually succeeded in 20 mins). That was this time I though it would be nice to have a phone like Pro1X.

ISL 6y ago
A small folding bluetooth keyboard can be awesome in this situation.
reasonabl_human 6y ago
While it is badass that you guys fixed a prod issue on the beach using an iPhone, I don’t think this new device is the only / best solution. The situation could also be solved by keeping a laptop or an iPad with a keyboard case in your car / bag if you are the one constantly ‘on-call’... most people have predefined on-call hours and wouldn’t need to sacrifice their stable daily driver cell just for physical keys
- artembugara 6y ago
  I agree, however, I'd prefer just putting this phone into my pocket. iPad with a keyboard is definitely better but it's also not compact. Plus, I don't really want to bring it to the beach (because no matter what I always end up cleaning all my stuff from the sand)

FlyingSnake 6y ago

Looks quite cool, and seeing that the order page is taking a hammering, I'm sure lots of orders are being placed. However the name reminds me of HBOs Silicon Valley show where they end up over-jargoning the product names. I wish they had come up with a more friendlier and catchy name like "Slidey" or something.

tedcrilly 6y ago
And they could then call NFC "Slidey sense".

froh42 6y ago

I wonder why such devices have such a "meh" processor. This thing has a worse one than my several year old OnePlus 5. Don't know if it can do HDMI or DisplayPort output, but assuming that (and using a bluetooth keyboard and mouse) it might be a ultra-portable work machine for me, so I don't need to schlep my laptop around. But not with a meh processor, then it is only a phone with a keyboard.

dmos62 6y ago
But a non-meh processor means less battery time. I'd prefer meh processor to meh battery life. Meh.
- kevingadd 6y ago
  That's not necessarily true, if it remains clocked down most of the time and is using the low power 'little' cores the difference isn't going to be that significant.
  - dmos62 6y ago
    Can someone expand on this? My anecdotal experience contradicts this and I don't know much about CPUs.
    - bogwog 6y ago
      ARM chips are heterogenous, so while they may claim to have 8 cores, not all of those cores are the same. Some are low-power cores meant to save battery power, and the high power cores are only activated when necessary. Plus regardless of that, just because a CPU is old doesn't mean it's more power efficient than a new one. If anything, it's usually the other way around. edit: more info at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_big.LITTLE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_big.LITTLE
- SergeAx 6y ago
  For Linux device I would expect a system slider setting like "speed/battery".

andrew_ 6y ago

It's astonishing to me that folks are still releasing phones which have no IP rating, let alone devices that are not fully waterproof (IP67). I'm probably in a class of folks who are in and around water more than most, however the flagships have all adopted this.

fsflover 6y ago
AFAIK it's very hard for a small company to make their device waterproof. And we certrainly need more competition in the smartphone duopoly.
andagainagain 6y ago
This will always be a problem, because the problem is basically "It suprises me that not everyone has the fancy features advertised 3 years ago on a flagship device". It's like people being suprised that the newest laptops don't all have high DPS displays and thin bezels, but they ignore that 1 - those aren't easy to engineer and 2 - they sacrifice things like repairability, reliability, and manufacturing cost to do so.

sheepybloke 6y ago

Like the concept, but $800 for a phone with Snapdragon 662[1]? Even with the keyboard and other pluses, that's a hard sell. That processor will be fine for most applications, but I'd hope for something slightly more powerful, like a 730G. I feel like a 662 might be too limiting, and at $800, that's a very crowded market, even if you are targeting a more open device. [1] https://www.notebookcheck.net/Qualcomm-Snapdragon-662-Processor-Benchmarks-and-Specs.497538.0.html https://www.notebookcheck.net/Qualcomm-Snapdragon-662-Proces...

aceazzameen 6y ago
Yeah, I was fully on board until I saw the processor.
lallysingh 6y ago
They probably don't have the quantity to get access to better chips+support.

Wildgoose 6y ago

I have another British 'phone with a better keyboard on order for delivery starting in June: The Astro Slide 5G from Planet Computers: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transformer/x/7586366#/ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transforme... I bought their Gemini offering which is a great PDA but not so good as a mobile phone. Their new offering promises to provide a solution for both.

undecisive 6y ago
I'm also looking forward to the Slide. Interesting to note that even with all the kerfuffle surrounding their processor "downgrade" during production, the Astro Slide should be a bit more powerful [1] Hopefully it will land sooner too... [1] https://nanoreview.net/en/soc-compare/qualcomm-snapdragon-662-vs-mediatek-dimensity-800 https://nanoreview.net/en/soc-compare/qualcomm-snapdragon-66...
yellowapple 6y ago
Yep, I'm in the Astro early bird group, too. Looking forward to trying it out; I haven't used the Gemini or Cosmo, so I ain't really sure what to expect, but it looks nice enough.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

_thejrk 6y ago

HTC Apache was the last phone I used w/ a full keyboard. I've wished several times I had a full keyboard on my phone.

Ashanmaril 6y ago

It's a sad fact of life that if you want a good phone that will age okay, and be supported for at least a few years with OS/security updates, and will have decent customer support if you run into issues, you're just gonna have to get a phone from one of the big guys. Making a phone is hard. Every time I see one of these niche phones that tries to appeal to a crowd with offers of "privacy" or "user control" I think it's neat and it would be nice if it was realistic. But it's just gonna be another poorly-supported phone, offered by a small company that doesn't have resources to handle the inevitable complications of selling a smartphone, and where you have the option of being either in: * Google's privacy nightmare Android ecosystem * Un-Googled Android where you can't use the Play Store and a bunch of apps you'd want to use don't work * Some kind of Linux distro for phones that will probably have an even worse app ecosystem than the previous option

varispeed 6y ago
I never needed customer support for a phone and never done any updates (I have not updated my phone for like 3 years, because I know the next update disables call recording). I'd love a phone with good specs, as many open parts as possible and with all schematics and BOM so I could fix it myself if something goes wrong.
- fsflover 6y ago
  > I have not updated my phone for like 3 years So you are using an outdated browser with security bugs? Good luck with that...
  - varispeed 6y ago
    I think the browser itself gets updates, but I have not updated the OS. I also only visit a handful of websites that I trust. If I want to "wander off" then I am using Tails on a dedicated computer.
- bradfa 6y ago
  I had the secure enclave in my iPhone 8 fail about 6 months after I bought it. Solution was to spend about half an hour on the phone with Apple while they ran remote diagnostics and then take it to an Apple store 30 minutes drive away. 10 minutes spent with Apple store employee while they ran even more diagnostics resulted in them handing me a replacement phone and I walked out. The ability to fairly quickly resolve my hardware problem greatly impressed me. I expect I could get a similar level of service with a Samsung device at a non-Samsung retailer, or if I bought the phone originally through a mobile phone operator's storefront and brought it back to the same store for warranty, but there's no promise of that. For something which is critical to the operation of my life, I have chosen to compromise on some desires and will likely continue to buy iPhones in the future simply because they work fairly well and when they don't I can get it fixed rather easily and with minimal downtime by Apple itself.

seanhunter 6y ago

There's no free lunch, and it's easy to overlook the compromises involved in the devices that used to have physical keyboards. By modern standards, blackberrys had a woefully small screen and phones with slideout keyboards were very fat. This device doesn't look fat which suggests to me that the compromise might be either battery life or low processor power. That said, although this is definitely not for me, it's generally good for the market to have some devices that are genuinely different rather than just another "me too" Samsung/iphone lookalike.

wazoox 6y ago
It is really fat: about 14mm, nearly twice as thick as most current phones.
- Snitch-Thursday 6y ago
  I own one. Mine feels no thicker than the Samsung Galaxy in a case. As long as it perceptually feels more or less like a box of playing cards, I'm not worried about thickness.
- degenerate 6y ago
  And that's without a case! I can't even imagine what a case would start to look like for this thing. It would be its own feat of engineering... Then again, if you're always holding it with two hands, who needs a case, right? :þ
  - ethbr0 6y ago
    Half-height, allowing the screen to slide out? Probably with a separate one with 4-corner shock bumpers on the screen.
    - notum 6y ago
      Or a zip-lock bag. Which would also make it waterproof! It's thin, light, when inflated it provides excellent protection, why doesn't everyone carry their phones in a sandwich bag?

acd 6y ago

Happy there are more Linux phones on the market. When there is a good premium Linux phone with open boot loader I will buy one. Smartphones are really small computers and we should be able to run whatever operating system one wants on them. Freedom as free choice of os.

Causality1 6y ago

I feel like there's not going to be a lot of overlap between people who want physical keyboards and people who like curved screens.

andreygrehov 6y ago

I see positive comments about the keyboard, but is it really a good UX to type on such a small keyboard? I mean, when you use your laptop, pretty much all of your fingers are involved in the process of typing, whereas if the same keyboard is part of a mobile phone, you only use your thumbs, which is the opposite of how qwerty keyboards supposed to be used. It feels like the idea of a full-blown keyboard on a mobile phone sounds cool, but when it comes to practice, must be a complete misuse of a technology. It's like if smartwatches were made with 8K display – sounds cool, but how practical it really is?

_nalply 6y ago
Some handicapped people, like my wife, need a physical keyboard. My wife is happy with the keyboard in Blackberry Key2.
ethbr0 6y ago
See historical: Danger Hiptop, aka Sidekick https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danger_Hiptop https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danger_Hiptop
chaorace 6y ago
I think the main advantage is blind typing. No amount of muscle memory can trump the tactile feedback of raised keys and home-row notches. When you're forced to rely on sight, you make more errors and are limited to using just one finger at a time (because your eyes can only focus on one spot at once). With that being said, I can blind type on my smartphone, just not with a QWERTY IME. I instead use a 4x4 grid-layout (MessagEase [1]) that's large enough to consistently hit the correct zones without any visual feedback. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MessagEase https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MessagEase
- stinos 6y ago
  and are limited to using just one finger at a time (because your eyes can only focus on one spot at once). That isn't entirely accurate. It's not because you focus at point x, that another finger cannot be moving at x + y cm and perform the correct action there. I never learned to type blindly. Or at least not in the way this is normally done. However I do have enough muscle memory by now that I can look down at the keyboard, put a couple of fingers in what roughly looks like the right spot and then start typing away with multiple fingers, from time to time laying focus in the center of the keyboard only.

_nalply 6y ago

I would buy a Linux smartphone with a Blackberry style keyboard (this means no fiddly slideouts) for my handicapped wife as long as Android apps can be made to work, by sideloading, emulating or whatever.

IceWreck 6y ago

Uhhh, that lady's long fingernails using the small keyboard in the promotional video are annoying.

yrgulation 6y ago

This brings about fond memories of my htc tyntyn. Shame it ran windows but it was a cool device. I could ssh into my servers back when almost no one even saw a touch screen, and the keyboard albeit small, was amazing. If this device delivers then i am 100% buying it.

Sodman 6y ago

I still consider my old Nokia E70[0] my favorite phone of all time, so I am definitely in the target demographic for this, as I'm 100% sold on the usefulness of a physical keyboard on a phone... However the CPU just doesn't match the "pro" branding, or the price range. I'd personally rather throw an extra $200-300 on top to get a flagship CPU and then it would be close to a perfect phone for me! As it currently is, the Snapdragon 662 shipped in the pro-1x gets blown away by my current Pixel 5's Snapdragon 765G - and Pixel phones recently have been generally characterized as having "above-average hardware specs but not enough to justify flagship prices". Separately, I am also curious for a phone like this that could run Android, LineageOS, and Ubuntu Touch - are there "dual boot" options in the mobile space? With 256GB storage it seems like it should be possible. I'd like to have old reliable Android as a daily driver, but maybe periodically drop into a less stable but more flexible environment like ubuntu. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_E70 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_E70

yjftsjthsd-h 6y ago
I have a Gemini that can triple boot ex. between Android, Debian, and Sailfish, so it's been done, but that was designed in by the manufacturer. There used to be some Android multiboot hack (multirom or something?), but I don't know details or if it's still around.
megous 6y ago
There's "dual boot" in mobile space https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GjXQFnMHGY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GjXQFnMHGY :)
k_ 6y ago
Seems like we're looking for similar things. I am currently waiting for delivery of my Astro Slide [0] [0]: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transformer https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transforme... which has android / linux dual boot. Not sure if performance are what you are looking for.
- Sodman 6y ago
  This looks much more like what I'm looking for alright! Doing some background research it looks like they had some issues with their chipset supplier and had to downgrade the chip a little, but performance benchmarks put it ~around the same place as my Pixel 5's current CPU, which I'd say is much more acceptable (if not totally cutting edge flagship-tier) for a phone in 2021! At $576 (Edit: now $621, looks like the early bird just sold out!) this also seems like a much better deal than the pro-1x at $800! I'm always worried though when the "pledge store" for these things says things like "Ships March 2021!" but their most recent update says they've just finalized their PCB and are just starting testing...

L29Ah 6y ago

likely doesn't run GNU/Linux, as only android drivers-supporting distros are listed as supported so plenty of blobs and not much to upstream

Cu3PO42 6y ago

I used to use a Motorola Milestone/Droid. It was great, I really loved the slideout keyboard and could touch type on it. Even with just two fingers actively in use, it felt great. Also being able to type something in landscape mode while still being able to see anything but the textbox and keyboard was phenomenal. All of that said, typing on a touch screen is fine and I don't think I'm willing to pay the premium for such a device anymore.

smashah 6y ago

can't wait for when they come out with a N900/N810 style keyboard!

whalesalad 6y ago

I type so incredibly fast on an iPhone keyboard that I have a hard time understanding the appeal of a (physical) tiny little keyboard like this.

topspin 6y ago
I mostly just speak to my Android. The speech recognition is so good now I rarely have to "type" anything.

dschuetz 6y ago

Welp, the pre-order site is down, I guess due to the hug of death from HN? I'd also really like to order one of those.

yndoendo 6y ago

I bought into the original project and still looking forward to receiving it, even with design changes. Currently have a 5+ old phone that stopped being updated after 2 years by one of those big players. Hopefully this will push to the Linux mainline and have longer security. Only use these as a phone, messaging, and reading news / articles. Don't game or other things. Hate using touch keyboard so much that when I'm reading and wish to comment I waiting until I get home and have access to a real keyboard. Even installed KDE Connect so I can use my laptop / desktop keyboard to type messages. Hate touch keyboards so much when you actually want / need to convey information. Specs are not the best but that is not my focal point. An usable phone with long security updates that runs a mainline Linux kernel is. Hoping in the long run hackers will pick at it and find a way to de-blob to evolve it even more.

aquir 6y ago

Promising but I will wait until to see some independent reviews. The reviews for other Linux phones are always terrible so I am really looking for a simple smartphone running Linux

osamagirl69 6y ago
The only change between this phone and the pro1 (non-X) is the downgraded processor -- so I encourage you to check out the original pro1 reviews. For the most part they are 'if you want a keyboard it is a good phone--it is otherwise mediocre in every way'. Also - the 'linux' support is a bit of a stretch, the community ported over ubuntu touch which is basically just android.

svacko 6y ago

The pre-order site https://store.fxtec.com/product/fxtec-pro%C2%B9-x-256-8gb/#toggle-id-1 https://store.fxtec.com/product/fxtec-pro%C2%B9-x-256-8gb/#t... says "Be one of the first to pre-order your Pro1 today. Shipping globally is estimated to be September 2019." ? Is it in the pre-order state since then?

xearl 6y ago
That page you linked to is for the Pro-1. The OP is about the newer Pro-1x.
- LilBytes 6y ago
  Well, was the Pro-1 ever delivered!?
  - Snitch-Thursday 6y ago
    Yes. I have one. Mine was ordered in Feb 2019 for shipping in August 2019. Come February 2020 it finally came in. Biggest favorite is that I love they keyboard. I run the LineageOS 17.1 simply because I've been too lazy to flash LineageOS 18 unofficial. tdm the primary developer did a great job making the keyboard act well, and other developers made it behave via an app in Stock Android. Second biggest favorite is that it has the trifecta of features I require from any phone: unlockable bootloader, microsd card, headphone jack. I prefer a removable battery but alas those are as thin as hen's teeth. My biggest beef with this phone is that it has spotty voice reception. I have to stand in a particular spot in my house to not have my UDP packets drop off. Data reception is fine and when I do calls over signal or duo (wifi) it works a treat. My second biggest beef would be the lack of snap-on case options like the old Nokias. I'm trying to figure out if someone does a 3d printed case or what, but with this curved screen, I'm nervous that each day could be this phone's last with just one fall.
  - jk7tarYZAQNpTQa 6y ago
    Top comment as of right now says [1] they ordered one but was never delivered, and the seller never answered to emails. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26662123 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26662123

jascii 6y ago

Is the chipset supported by the mainline kernel? Their earlier "linux phones" basicly needed an android kernel and Linux support was close to non-existant.

darksaints 6y ago

If you would have asked me 10 years ago, this would have been my ideal phone. But not anymore. For two reasons: 1) touchscreens have gotten a lot better...they're not perfect, but they're finally good enough for a phone. And not having a physical keyboard means fewer moving parts, and fewer physical design constraints, which translates to higher reliability and better performance. 2) Android and linux in general are not good enough for phones. I want a better security model. Android could have been built on top of any kernel...they had to build all of the userland and drivers from scratch. I'm disappointed that Linux was chosen instead of something like L4 or QNX, which would have allowed us to sandbox code that could be potentially malicious, deny access to sensitive resources like location, etc. It would also be far more reliable, with the ability to restart individual malfunctioning driver code instead of your whole phone. And most of the freedoms that come from rooting your phone would be built in.

dbeley 6y ago

It doesn't give you as much control as a Pinephone or a Purism smartphone, as it relies on a ton of proprietary blob that will never reach Linux mainline.

swiley 6y ago
This easy to tell, if it has a Qualcomm SoC in it chances are you won't be able to run a reasonable OS on it.

aidenn0 6y ago

I've had phones with landscape and portrait mode keyboards, and the latter were invariably better. Maybe it's just that Palm and RIM were better at making keyboards, but I'm not interested in a landscape keyboard at this point

29083011397778 6y ago
I would put an offensively large bet on BlackBerry putting absurd amounts of effort into their keyboards, instead of landscape being inherently worse. Based on everything I've ever seen, heard, and read, they cared deeply about hardware design. "Losing the Signal", regarding the rise and fall on BlackBerry, made it clear they tested for things like drops extensively, and (IIRC) went as far as literally throwing at least one device around to ensure it would survive. And then they were pushed to push the Storm out the door, which pushed many people away. Things only really went downhill from there, sadly. That said, my KeyOne is still my favourite phone ever, and I'll carry on with it as long as I can purchase replacement components :)
- aidenn0 6y ago
  On further reflection, I think that it's just not that much worse to two-thumb type on a narrow keyboard, and a landscape isn't big enough to five finger type, but to big to single-thumb type.

devilduck 6y ago

Would rather have a heavily upgraded N900

als0 6y ago

https://vimeo.com/471380106#t=105s https://vimeo.com/471380106#t=105s The moment when the woman tries to multitask Excel and Slack at the same time is hard to take seriously!

jimmyblanco 6y ago

Which CPU is shipped in this phone? https://www.fxtec.com/index https://www.fxtec.com/index says: Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 MSM8998 however, https://www.fxtec.com/pro1x https://www.fxtec.com/pro1x says: Qualcomm Snapdragon 662

namlaswad 6y ago

Reminds me of that failed kickstarter campaign

simplyaccont 6y ago

It's all nice and stuff, but does it support VoLTE ? With impending shutdown of 3G networks in USA next year, without VoLTE, you can't really use phone part of the smartphone

commandnotfound 6y ago
Disabling the 3G network doesn't mean they are going to disable the older 2G networks that are widely used to make calls even if connected through LTE. Here (Czech Republic) the 3G network was disabled today and the phone part of my phone works even though VoLTE is not being used.
- simplyaccont 6y ago
  2G networks are already down here. Operators won't activate phones that do not support VoLTE and sending emails for past year+ warning of shutdown of 3G network

takeda 6y ago

I placed an order for their previous model, they assured me that I should get it 4 - 8 weeks. After I didn't get anything for 6 months I messaged them that I want to withdraw my order (the phone had already old hardware during release, and it was a year old when I ordered it, but at the same time it cost as much as a high end phone). I got no response from them. I then contacted my credit card company and they charged back. It sucks, because, I would really love phone with a hardware keyboard. I would place an order, but am afraid of the same thing happening again.

hyko 6y ago
Guess there’s always the Gemini - bonus is that it effectively has a Psion 5 keyboard https://store.planetcom.co.uk/products/gemini-pda-1 https://store.planetcom.co.uk/products/gemini-pda-1
- ruph123 6y ago
  Or even their next product which looks very promising: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transformer#/ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transforme...
  - hyko 6y ago
    Looks nice, seriously tempted!
jk7tarYZAQNpTQa 6y ago
So a scam, like the Escobar phone[1]? [1] Marques Brownlee - The Truth About the Escobar Folding Phone! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8FJSjy3bXA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8FJSjy3bXA [1] Marques Brownlee - Escobar Responds! A PSA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns8ydpZ5-4o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns8ydpZ5-4o
usr1106 6y ago
There is a comment further down saying they received theirs 7 months after the promised delivery date. So not a scam, but certainly over-optimistic promises.

opan 6y ago

Don't expect support as good as a PinePhone. If this is anything like the Gemini PDA, it will only really work well with Android, and there will be many proprietary blobs that are reused via libhybris because of drivers being Android-only. There are phones that only officially support Android and get mainlined and can run postmarketOS, but the shim that sorta-kinda works may dissuade people from doing this proper level of support. Again, look at the Gemini PDA and how its pmOS support is worse than some Samsung phones. MediaTek and binary blobs are the source of the problem, but a company choosing these parts and then over-promising GNU/Linux support should not be ignored either. If you've ever shopped for a router to put OpenWrt on, or tried to run the Linux-libre kernel on a laptop, you'll know some companies are to be avoided. Broadcom in a router is never good, for example, and because ASUS chooses them often, ASUS is not really good either.

willcipriano 6y ago

Website is slow to load but I finally got to see the price after a few attempts: $899 USD. I love the idea and really need a new phone but man I wish it was a little cheaper. $500 or so it would be a no brainer but at close to a grand I feel the need to shop around.

theodric 6y ago

I bought into the Planet Gemini on the promise of a Linux-multiboot Android phone with a physical keyboard. The keyboard is too small (and poor) to be usable, the Linux distributions never progressed beyond alpha quality (not graphics acceleration even!) and the Android base was abandoned after two major revs. This one looks very much the same, down to the software base. I've learned my lesson about these kinds of devices, and I won't be going back to the well for another drink. I'd encourage you to consider well before getting too excited.

dusted 6y ago

give me a smartphone with a slide-out t9 compatible physical keyboard

auiya 6y ago

No way, I can type an order of magnitude faster on a soft keyboard.

OnionBlender 6y ago

I don't need a permanent keyboard. Can someone suggest a good portable Bluetooth keyboard for Android?

smdz 6y ago

Had been waiting for something like this few years back and with Ubuntu. But with M1 chip's success, I think we are much closer and it could be worth waiting for an iPhone (or a bulky iPhone) with something like MacOS that docks into a desktop or lapdock.

PiotrVonKleve 6y ago

For full keyboard I would suggest the Titan [0] from unihertz for $340 (QWERTY 4G Rugged Smartphone) with 6GB RAM and 128GB Storage. I don't, but the specs look interesting. [0] https://www.unihertz.com/titan.html https://www.unihertz.com/titan.html